WILMA MOCK LARGE
By

ABOVE: Ms. Wilma Fountain Mock

On December 8, 2020, the Alvin Independent School District Board of Trustees approved their new elementary school #21 to be named Nichols-Mock Elementary School, after Ms. Wilma Fountain Mock and Ms. Debra Nichols.

Mock is a native of Center, Texas and Nichols is a native of Nacogdoches, Texas.

Mock was the very first Black teacher to be hired in Alvin ISD, where she faithfully served the district for 32 years and has continued on as a tutor in the district for the last 16 years.

As earlier stated, Mock was born in Center, Texas to the late Robert and Eloise Fountain. She is a 1965 graduate of C. H. Daniels High School. After graduation, she attended Prairie View A&M University, where she majored and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, with a minor in Geography.

After graduating from Prairie View A&M in May 1970, Mock earned a fellowship that helped her continue her studies in Physical Education on a graduate level. The fellowship requirements were to teach and complete class work at the University.  It was during that time she fell in love with teaching.  Her post-graduate studies ended in July 1972.  At that point, she had lived and had been nurtured in a totally Black environment where she fell at ease in it.

Seeking to fulfill her goal of becoming a Physical Education teacher, Mock responded to a job listing that was posted in the student center at Prairie View A&M that showed an opening for a PE/Tennis Coach position in Alvin ISD.  That same day, she interviewed for the position at Alvin Junior High, where she received a tour and met some of the teachers. It was in that short amount of time, she noticed there were no other teachers who looked like her. At the conclusion of the interview, and with some deep apprehension, she accepted the position in September 1972, becoming the first Black teacher in Alvin ISD. 

Mock worked six years at Alvin Junior High and was asked to coach Gymnastics, Track and Cross Country at Alvin High School. She continued that position for four years until she took a two-year leave, only to return to E. C. Mason Elementary, where she spent 14 years. As the district continued to grow, she had the opportunity to help open Hood-Case Elementary. She completed seven years at Hood-Case, which then led to her retirement in 2004.

Soon after retirement, Mock was asked to continue teaching and developing the youth by tutoring at two different Alvin ISD Elementary Schools. She has since added 16 more years of dedication and expertise to hundreds of students.

In her three decades of teaching, Mock has been asked many times to describe what her philosophy of teaching was and what it looked like.

Mock stated: “I AM A TEACHER AND A LEADER! I have been a member of a profession where I could be an instrumental part in molding, shaping and developing characteristics in all the children I had taught. I strived to touch  lives  in  such  a  way  that  all  students  would  remember  something  constructive  about  their early years of schooling.”

Mock stated she would not be the teacher she turned out to be, without the love and support of her own family – her husband John Mock and her daughter Amanda Mock, who is a 2003 graduate of Alvin High School and a current teacher in Alvin ISD.